| Author (Person) | Davies, Eric | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 22.12.03 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 22/12/2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The European Union's new Constitutional Treaty was to have been adopted by leaders during the weekend of 13 December at a meeting of the European Council. Although there was reportedly agreement on many points, the meeting broke up without a new Treaty being agreed, after Spain and Poland refused to concede on the contentious issue of voting rights. The failure to agree a text leaves the Union facing its imminent enlargement without the promised Constitution which, amongst other things, was to have prepared the EU institutions for the impact of 10 new Member States in May 2004. Background The December 2001 The path to adopting the Constitution appeared to have been smoothed by a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Naples at the end of November. Despite the Italian Presidency springing a surprise proposal ('that decisions on proposals from the new EU foreign minister should be decided by qualified majority - BBC, EU wobbles over constitution), negotiations apparently allowed Ministers to reach 'broad “political agreement” on the agenda to be presented to the [Brussels Summit], but not on the overall package of decisions' (European Voice, That said, the possibility of failure was clearly in the minds of some leaders. Germany's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, told European Voice that 'failure by member states to seal an agreement on the EU constitution will spell the end of a united Europe' ( Speaking to the European Parliament, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, warned that the Treaty must be the right one: 'bad constitutions, those which are felt to be unjust or ineffective by citizens, lead to revolution or rebellion. In this particular case, I don't think that any barricades would be raised, but I do think we would see the gradual falling apart of the European Union' (Financial Times, In the end there was no agreement. The Summit reportedly collapsed because of the insistence of Spain and Poland that they should retain the number of votes in the Council of the European Union ('the Council of Ministers') that they were allocated in the Treaty of Nice (p 82). That Treaty gave Spain and Poland 27 votes, just two short of the 29 allocated to France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (other countries have far fewer votes, ranging from 13 for The Netherlands to 3 for Malta). The weighting system agreed at Nice is based on population size and - although the agreement was clearly acceptable at the time - there is now concern that the near-equality in voting power for countries with populations as different in size as those of France and Germany (which between them account for about one third of the Union's population) and Spain and Poland (each with about 40 million people) is 'unfair'. However, having been given their votes, Spain and Poland have no intention of relinquishing them. At the Brussels Summit, the two countries were reportedly offered four other options by Mr Berlusconi, but refused them (BBC News Online, EU constitution 'will be agreed'). Commenting on the failure, Commission President Romano Prodi said in a statement: 'Today it was not possible to reach an agreement. Any deal would have been below expectations and no one wanted that. Now we need to stop and think carefully and put our ideas in order.' Mr Prodi's lack of anger at the collapse of the talks (he was even careful not to apportion blame for the failure) was shared by some other leaders, including Tony Blair ('there's no crisis'). But, reported the BBC 'Others, like Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder, say the failure to agree on the EU's first constitution will propel them towards a “two-speed Europe”, with “pioneer groups” forging a closer union, leaving doubters to doubt' (BBC News Online, Analysis: Legacy of summit failure). Certainly there will be no immediate attempt to salvage the Constitution. Ireland's Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, said the Union is not facing an 'insuperable crisis', and the incoming Irish Presidency will 'hold consultations before reporting back to EU leaders at the next scheduled summit in March' (BBC News Online, Ireland sets EU presidency goals). It seems unlikely, however, that any Constitutional Treaty will now be adopted until at least the latter half of 2004 (under the Dutch Presidency). In the view of John Palmer, Political Director of the European Policy Centre, 'much will depend on whether attitudes in Poland and Spain evolve over the next few months which will see an election and a new prime minister in Madrid, following Mr Aznar's retirement, and possible changes in the Polish political leadership.' (After the failure of the Constitutional Treaty negotiations - New directions for European integration?). Further information within European Sources Online European Sources Online: In Focus
European Sources Online: European Voice
European Sources Online: Financial Times
Further information can be seen in these external links: EU Institutions Italian Presidency of the EU
European Commission DG Press and Communication
Press releases
Speeches European Parliament
Think Tanks European Policy Centre
Media organisations BBC News Online
Eric Davies Background and reporting on the week's main stories in the European Union and the wider Europe. |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
